I've researched and found this problem discussed perviously with different suggested resolutions. I'd like to go through what I seem to have learned and make sure I am correct in the possible solution.

My T60p has been working pretty well with a few issues occassionally like wireless adapter won't reset when the comp is awoken, or sometimes the screen won't display when awoken. But nothing that a diagnosis or restart didn't resolve. A few days ago I awoke the computer and got the BSOD. I forced a shutdown and tried to restart and came up with the following messages: 

MEDIA TEST FAILURE

UNABLE TO REBOOT

1) ATA HDD0        HITACHI              NO VALID OPERATING SYSTEM

2) USB FDD                                        DEVICE NOT FOUND

3) ATAPI CDO                                    NO VALID OPERATING SYSTEM

4) USB CD                                          DEVICE NOT FOUND

5) PCI LAN                                          NO VALID OPERATING SYSTEM

6) USB HDD                                       DEVICE NOT FOUND

7) ATA HDD1                                      DEVICE NOT FOUND

After reading a number of websites I removed the hard drive and connected it by USB to another computer. The hard drive is working and I can see all my files. When I restart the laptop without the hard drive it shows the ATA HDD0 as "Device Not Found." After reinstalling the hard drive it once again lists it but with no valid operating system.

I'm no computer genius but I know enough to fake what I'm talking about to some extent. So obviously the computer sees my hard drive but it's not reading the information to start the OS. From what I've read the computer proceeds through the start-up order and reads the first 512mb of data of each device for the OS information. I guess somehow the information on my hard drive was corrupted or destroyed somehow. 

It seems the possible solution is to clean the hard drive and reload the OS. I am running Windows 7 and I have the upgrade disc and code from my upgrade from XP. 

Am I correct, at least in general, about what's happened with my T60p and will reloading the OS most likely resolve the issue.

Thanks all

Hi, hattorihanso

I would be inclined to agree with you on both the cause and the solution. It seems like your computer can no longer find the Master Boot Record (MBR) that was stored on the drive, and, because of this, it assumes that there is no operating system installed on the hard drive. Reinstalling another OS on the drive should make everything work as intended, though I would recommend checking the health of your drive shortly after installing another OS using ChkDsk or something similar to make sure the drive is healthy, just to be on the safe side.

Good luck, 

Adam

Hello,

Perhaps the file system on the hard disk drive was corrupted during the unexpected shutdown.  Did you try running a Chkdsk against the hard disk drive while it was plugged into another computer?  If so, did it find or repair any problems?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Thanks Adam and Aryeh,

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, my other computer is a iMac. So I did not run the ChkDsc scan on it. I did run the disc scan on the HD through the DOS menu on the Lenovo. I got no results from the scan as it seemed to probably find the HD but the progress stayed at 0% for any duration I would leave it running. Any idea's what that might indicate? 

Hello,

It could mean a physical failure of the hard disk drive, but it could take several hours for a diagnostic to run—you may need to let it run overnight to be certain, though.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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wrote:

my other computer is a iMac. So I did not run the ChkDsc scan on it. 

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Perhaps you can download and burn a standalone OS DVD like BartPE or Linux on the iMac, boot your T60p with it, then run HD diagnostics.

So I did let the computer run for an extended period of time while I ran the HDD Diagnostic Program from the BIOS on the T60p. It took about 1.5 hours but the result was PASS on readability. I guess I was just impatient before. Is this scan the same as ChkDsc scan? But it sounds as though everything checks okay and I guess the implication would be that the Master Boot Record cannot be found. Does this sound logical? So I guess my next step would be to reload Windows 7 and see how this works out.

Danke,

John

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wrote:

I guess the implication would be that the Master Boot Record cannot be found.  So I guess my next step would be to reload Windows 7 and see how this works out.

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Yes, a broken or missing MBR could be the problem. There's no need to reinstall Windows. You should be able to recover/rebuild just the MBR.

See for example:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/win7-windows-7-mbr,10036.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

Thank You Dorian,

I appreciate the links as they were helpful. I went through the process and ran into some roadblocks. Here's a summary:

I reinstalled the hard drive and inserted the Windows 7 disc in the CD slot. Started the computer and elected to start the computer from the CD when I was prompted. It went to the screen and said "Windows Is Loading Files" and went to the next screen saying "Starting Windows" and the Windows symbol formed. Then the computer went to a BSOD with the message:

HARDWARE MALFUNCTION

CALL YOUR HARDWARE VENDOR FOR SUPPORT

NMI: PARITY CHECK/MEMORYPARITY ERROR

***THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN HALTED***

So I shut it down and stated it again through the same process and this time it didn't go nto the BSOD but instead came to the desired dialogue boxes to install the OS. I selected "Repair My "Computer" and then selected "Startup Repair" and was presented with the following message:

SEARCHING FOR PROBLEMS

STARTUP REPAIR CANNOT REPAIR THIS COMPUTER AUTOMATICALLY

PROBLEM EVENT NAME        STARTUPREPAIROFFLINE

PROBLEM SIGNATURE 01:    0.0.0.0

PROBLEM SIGNATURE 02:    0.0.0.0

PROBLEM SIGNATURE 03:    UNKNOWN

PROBLEM SIGNATURE 04:    0

PROBLEM SIGNATURE 05:    UNKNOWN

PROBLEM SIGNATURE 06:    1

PROBLEM SIGNATURE 07:    UNKNOWN

OS VERSION                           6.1.7600.2.0.0.0.2561

LOCALE ID                              1033

I went back to the previous window and selected "Command Prompt". I then entered "bootrec.exe/FixMbr and received the reply:

"the system cannot find the path specified"

I went through this command a few more times and also the "FixBoot"  command all to the same repsonse of "the system cannot find the path specified". One thing that differed on my command window from one of the web pages you linked me was the language before I entered the command was:

x:\sources>       instead of:     x:\windows\system32>

I don't know if this is an indication of a problem. So then I decided I might try to just reload the OS and selected that option. After being prompted I inserted the disc containing the drivers and was then greeted with the message 

No Devce Drivers Were Found

So I was unsuccessful in making progress to get this thing up and running. One thing to note is the BSOD that displayed with the Parity Error was not the first time I have seen this. I had this message before  and I had to replace either the hard drive or the mother board. I can't remember which time it showed up, but I have had to replace both of these items over time since I bought this thing new 5.7 years ago. (Hard drive replaced 3 years ago and motherbaord replaced 2.5 years ago)

Sorry for the long dialogue. Do the results of my attempts to repair this give any insight into what I might look into next?

Thanks,

John

> NMI: PARITY CHECK/MEMORYPARITY ERROR

That sounds like a RAM or motherboard error. If you have two RAM modules then remove one and try again. If you still get this error switch modules and try again.

> x:\sources>       instead of:     x:\windows\system32>

This is telling you that bootrec.exe/FixMbr is located in the \windows\system32 directory but Command is running in the \sources directory. Try a CD (change directory) command first, i.e. "cd x:\windows\system32" before the bootrec.exe/FixMbr

I'm not sure if either suggestion will be productive but they're worth a try. If the problem is with the motherboard then it's probably not worth fixing. Even 2GB DDR2 RAM modules are getting expensive these days.